Blizzard opens official World of Warcraft Story Forums

Roleplayers and Lore scholars rejoice! Nethaera has announced a new World of Warcraft lore forum has been created. One thing missing in this announcement is whether Chris Metzen, Micky Neilson, and their Creative Team will be answering questions or commenting in this new forum, but chances are that’s a no-brainer. Ain’t you happy?

Blizzard Quote:

We are pleased to introduce the Warcraft Story Forum where players can discuss the storylines of the Warcraft universe, as told in-game and through the novels, manga, comics, and short stories that Blizzard publishes. Be sure to visit the new forum here.

In order to get the most benefit out of the story forum, we suggest the following:

Feel free to theorycraft, discuss character flaws, strengths, and where you think the story is going or where you would like it to go.

Discuss the various published stories, share insights on them, and what aspects you liked or didn’t like most about them.

Please refrain from posting non-constructive feedback, attacking other posters, or posting harassing or defamatory language about authors or Blizzard employees.

Participate in polls. We’ll be using them here from time to time to get your feedback on various storylines, novel releases and more.

Talk amongst yourselves. While we’ll be monitoring discussion and periodically answering questions about the story, this forum is meant primarily as a place for you to discuss various viewpoints with fellow story enthusiasts.

What is Creative Development?

Creative Development (CDev) is a “hub” within Blizzard, facilitating the development of ancillary products and services that tie into Blizzard’s game universes. While there are several different divisions of CDev, this Warcraft Story forum focuses on the efforts of the Publishing division.

What does Creative Development’s Publishing division have to do with Warcraft’s stories and lore?

The Publishing division within Creative Development is the driving force behind every published story you’ve seen outside of the game: short stories, novels, comics, and manga.

Who comprises the Publishing division of Creative Development?

Publishing is made of two groups:

Story Development: this group focuses on story idea creation, story outlining, and story development for licensed fiction, as well as for internally-written stories

Historians: this group is the repository for all Blizzard lore, providing counsel for the game development teams and the CDev Story Development group

What is the Publishing division’s usual process for developing a story?

Idea Generation & Outline Creation: Working with Chris Metzen and the designers on the respective game’s development team, the Story Development team generates an idea and an outline for a story. The writer on the project is typically invited to our offices at this point in the project, so that they can be in on the ground floor of the story’s creation.

Story Development & Lore Checking: Over the course of the project, the Story Development team talks constantly with the writer, as well as with Chris Metzen and the game developers, in order to help hone the story into a Blizzard-quality tale. At the same time, our Historian team combs through the iterations of the story in order ensure that the story adheres to the universe’s established canon.

What does the Publishing division hope to accomplish with this Warcraft Story forum?

We’d like to give the community a chance to influence the development of our upcoming stories, so we’re trying something new; this forum will serve as a direct line to our story developers. Please note that we’re not looking for fully-formed stories – save those for the Global Writing Contest (which we operate and judge) – but rather we’re looking for specific examples of what people like, don’t like, and what they would like to see (story-wise) from us in the future.